Defenders (Ireland)

The Defenders (Irish: Na Cosantóirí) were a popular, oath-bound, society that reflected the range of Catholic grievance in late 18th-century Ireland. First formed as a vigilante response to the violence with which Protestants resisted competition for tenancies and employment in County Armagh, the Defenders spread rapidly as a lodge-based based fraternity across Ulster and into Leinster and Dublin City. A campaign for Catholic emancipation that excited hopes of tax and rent relief, and resistance to militia conscription, broadened and politicised their membership. By 1796, the Defenders had allied with the United Irishmen, republicans who, making common cause against the landed Anglican ascendancy, drew them into the rebellion of 1798.